On Friday 27 February, Big Think partner PwC hosted its second global webcast focused on the question, ‘What would you do if you were not afraid?’ The webcast was part of ‘Aspire to Lead: The PwC Women’s...

Anatoly Karpov

World Chess Champion 1975-1985

Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov was the world chess champion for a decade, from 1975 to 1985. He won the title when Bobby Fischer, the American grandmaster and reigning world champion, failed to show up at the chessboard. Born in 1951 in Zlatoust, a Russian industrial city in the Urals, Karpov is widely considered to be one of the greatest players of all time. He finished first in more than 160 tournaments and occupied the Number 1 spot on the world chess rating list for 90 months, a record surpassed only be the man who dethroned him as world champion, Garry Kasparov. Today, two and half decades after his reign as world champion, Karpov is still an active and strong grandmaster (rated Number 155 in the world, as of June 2010). Karpov is running for president of FIDE, the world chess federation.

The thirteenth world chess champion had an unrivaled mastery of opening-move theory and was unstoppable when he had the initiative. But “he was not so strong when his king was in danger,” says archrival Anatoly...

The American grandmaster was an impulsive individualist who had an incapacitating fear of losing, says the man who became world chess champion when Fischer refused to show up at the board and defend his title.